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About
this series:
As some of you may know, The Rodale Institute®,
which publishes The New Farm®, is home to
the longest running field trials in the country
comparing organic and conventional systems of
farming called The Rodale Institute Farming Systems
Trial® (FST). The data from that 23 years
of research is a real treasure trove of insight
into the economic, ecological and agronomic benefits
of organic farming.
In addition to this long-running Farming Systems
Trial, we have a variety of other research in
progress at The Institute. David Douds has been
studying soil fungi here at The Institute’s
research farm for 15 years. (Go to Cultivating
diversity underground for better yields above
for more on David's research.) We’re engaged
in no-till research, weed research, compost tea
research, composting research, water quality research,
and much more.
Until now, much of the light we’re generating
here on our research farm has been hidden under
the proverbial barrel, but we’re taking
off the barrel and busting it up for firewood.
We’re going let the light of the amazing
research being done here shine on farmers, consumers
and environmental activities.
Over the next year we’ll be running a series
of stories, about one a month, on the significance
of our research ... and its practical applications.
That includes a few stories on equipment construction—a
front-mounted roller for no-till, and a compost
turner converted from a junked 18-wheeler.
So sit tight, and be prepared to be amazed.
Enjoy,
Chris Hill
Executive
Editor
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September
30, 2003: Paul Hepperly, The Rodale Institute's Research
Manager, is looking into securing some kind of historical
designation for the 12-acre site. But there are no time-weathered
buildings here, just crops and soil and grassy field margins.
Initiated in 1981, The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial®
(FST) is the longest-running side-by-side comparison of organic
and conventional farming systems in the US, and one of the
oldest in the world. What began as a 5-year controlled study
of what a typical American grain farmer would go through to
give up chemical fertilizers and pesticides has matured into
a complex, interdisciplinary, collaborative project that will
be continued indefinitely. As The Rodale Institute® President
John Haberern puts it, the FST is "a living experiment.
It doesn't have an end."
The FST compares three strategies, or 'systems,' for grain
production: one conventional, one livestock-based organic,
and one legume-based organic. The conventional system follows
a 5-year rotation typical of many farms across the Midwest--corn,
soybeans, corn, corn, soybeans--and receives fertilizer and
pesticide applications according to the standard recommendations
provided by Pennsylvania State University. The livestock-based
organic system follows a 5-year rotation of corn, soybeans,
corn silage, wheat, red clover and alfalfa hay, with aged
cattle manure applied in the two corn years. The legume-based
organic system is structured around a 3-year rotation of hairy
vetch/corn, rye/soybeans, and wheat. The two organic systems
receive no chemical inputs for fertility, weed or pest control.
One of the key features of the FST is its scale--small enough
to follow rigorous scientific procedures for experimental
design but large enough to be worked with regular equipment
and to generate results readily applicable to normal farm
operations. The level field of mostly shale-y, somewhat compacted
silt loam is broken into eight blocks, or replications, with
each block containing three plots, 60 ft wide by 300 ft long,
and each plot divided lengthwise into three subplots. Eight
replications of each of the three cropping systems are randomized
across the blocks; while the subplots allow each rotation
to be started simultaneously at three points, so the effects
of annual weather variations are distributed across different
phases of the cropping cycle. Datasets from the FST include
weather records; energy and labor inputs; corn, soybean, wheat,
and forage yields; weed, crop, and cover crop biomass figures;
nutrient analyses of crops and cover crops; soil carbon and
nitrogen levels; soil percolation rates; nitrate, phosphate,
and pesticide leachate data; soil biodiversity surveys; and
economic return evaluations.
Results from the FST have been reported in dozens of scientific
papers over the years, and include this core finding: corn
and soybean yields are the same across the three systems.
Although corn yields were about a third lower in the organic
systems during the first four years of the study, in subsequent
years the organic systems actually outperformed the conventional
system under droughty conditions. The reason will come as
no surprise to anyone who has managed soils organically: while
the portions of the field under conventional management have
suffered further degradation from wind and water erosion (when
The Rodale Institute purchased the property in the late 1970s
it had been used to grow conventional corn for almost two
decades), the portions under organic management have shown
steady improvements in organic matter, water infiltration,
microbial activity, and other soil quality indicators.
Comparisons between the two organic systems have also been
of great interest, suggesting to The Rodale Institute's Farm
Manager Jeff Moyer, for instance, ways to improve his management
of the rest of the Rodale Farm. Excess nitrogen in the legume-based
organic system has led Moyer to reduce seeding rates for hairy
vetch, resulting in less nitrate leaching … not to mention
reduced seed costs. The overall benefits of cover-cropping
in both systems have moved him more and more towards reduced
tillage. "In the end it's a combination of methods that
seems to work best," Moyer explains. "You have to
think in terms of ever longer and more complex rotations."
But the lessons of the FST have spread far beyond Rodale,
as the field has played host to a wide range of related research
projects by university, government, and independent investigators.
- Dr. David Douds of the Agricultural Research Service
has examined mycorrhizal fungi populations under the three
different farming regimes.
- Dr. David Pimentel of Cornell University
has compared total energetic requirements of all inputs
for each system.
- The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
has in part financed the monitoring of water passing through
each system for nutrient leaching and chemical contamination.
- Dr. James Hanson of the University of Maryland
has conducted an economic comparison of the conventional
versus the legume-based organic systems.
- Warren Porter of the University of Wisconsin
plans to investigate variations in nutritional content of
the feed and forage coming off the FST plots.
- Dr. Michelle Wander of the University of Illinois
has studied soil organic matter characteristics in the FST
and is now developing new soil testing procedures to evaluate
cropping system efficiency.
- Dr. Silke Ullrich of the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture
Systems Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, is using the
FST fields to research weed population dynamics under conventional
and organic management.
- Dr. Jorgen Olesen, from the Danish Institute of
Agricultural Sciences, is using FST data to improve
nitrogen modeling in farming systems and will go on to compare
crop rotation performance in continental and maritime climates.
Because of the many emergent properties of complex agroecosystems,
Paul Hepperly feels that the collaborations generated by the
FST are just as important as the raw results. "The value
of a study like this lies in its holistic aspects--what researchers
from different disciplines have learned from each other, and
what we've learned from them. We're only just beginning to
understand what's at work."  |
